Today, cellular service uses a subscription model under which users subscribe to a cellular service provided by a particular cellular carrier. If a subscriber also obtains their mobile device from the particular cellular carrier, carrier-specific applications, logos and feature services associated with the particular cellular carrier are provided with the mobile device. These cellular carrier-specific applications and feature services may provide a number of different features to the subscribers, such as navigation, bill payment, a family locating feature, lost device location or erase, music services, and the like. The software that provides the applications and feature services is typically proprietary to, or for exclusive use by, the particular cellular carrier.
In addition, the particular cellular carrier may partner with other carriers, and provide yet one or more other branded applications for the partnership. The partnership-branded device may have different features than the particular cellular carrier branded device. In other words, the particular cellular carrier may be associated with a number of branded devices that are the same model and from the same manufacturer but that have different requirements.
Moreover, other mobile devices, (e.g., open devices, “jail-broken” devices “rooted” devices or unlocked devices) that are not obtained through a cellular carrier, but from, for example, a mobile device manufacturer, or third parties, are classified as non-branded devices. Non-branded devices only contain base software. Base software is the minimum, or almost the minimum (there may be some features that are needed for only communicating or using a feature of the phone such as a notes application or a voice recording application) software needed to perform functions typically associated with a mobile device, such as voice calling, e-mailing, text messaging, camera control and the like.
Since the branded and non-branded devices have different capabilities with regard to a particular cellular carrier and the cellular carrier's network, the cellular carrier must provide device manufacturers with requirements documents for each type of device. In addition, the device manufacturers must provide each of the different cellular carriers with different versions of the same device to meet the requirements of each cellular carrier.
Hence, although to the public, the devices may appear or be marketed as the same model, from the perspectives of the manufacturer and the carriers, the devices actually may be several models or versions that are similar but differ as to the software loads. Thus, the sets of features and/or applications installed or activated on the different carrier's version(s) of the mobile device require the manufacture of different versions of the same mobile device model. Accordingly, there is a need to minimize the number of different mobile device versions of the same mobile device model that need to be generated to meet the requirements of the different carriers.